SOURCE: West-Burdette, Beverly. “Gesture, Concrete Imagery, and Spatial Configuration in the Cantar de mio Cid.” La Corónica 16, no. 1 (fall 1987): 55-66.

In the following essay, West-Burdette argues that the poet of the Cantar de mio Cid relies on sensual imagery, concrete references, and dramatic narrative techniques to impart abstract concepts and symbolic meanings to his uneducated medieval audience.

Throughout the history of Cidian scholarship, a great deal of attention has been given to the debated issue of the Cantar/Poema as a work of oral art versus a work of literary art. Within this larger issue are the polemic problems of authorship, manner of composition, intended audience and purpose, to impart historical knowledge and inspire patriotism or to provide entertainment through dramatization, novelization, and fictionalization. Whether conceived from the mouth of a skilled singer of tales or the pen of an inspired poet, perhaps both, we as modern...